S. Afr. J. Ind. Eng. vol.22 n.2 Pretoria 2011

The production of scientific publications in engineering in South Africa has expanded over the last three decades. Because engineering is an important science, this expansion has implications for the growth and development of the economy. Drawing on a sample range of years of the publications stored in the ISI Web of Knowledge, the engineering publications of South Africans for a 30-year period from 1975-2005 are analysed. This analysis shows that the production of scientific publications in engineering by South African researchers has increased during the analysed period; that the number of researchers per publication has grown; that the number of countries collaborating with South Africa has increased; and that the number of sole-authored papers has decreased. Domestic collaboration (between researchers within South Africa) has decreased, while international collaboration has grown considerably. The key objective of the paper is to find out whether the production of publications is related to the level of collaboration, and to see how collaboration can be regressed from other known variables. It is clear from the study that collaboration is a decisive factor in the production of scientific publications in engineering in South Africa.